Rightmove House Price Index

March 14, 2017

Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments on the most recent Rightmove House Price Index released.

The data released by Rightmove suggests that, whilst asking prices are still 2.3% up on average against the same time last year, buyers are now very much sticking to their budgets, with very little ‘wiggle room’. It’s likely that this is due to stricter lending criteria, and suggests that buyers are getting their ducks in a row financially before they start their property search in terms of applying for their mortgage to understand how much they can spend, meaning that agents are now finding it harder to ‘upsell’ properties and encourage applicants to look at properties that are out of their price range in order to encourage them to make an offer. Therefore, in order to sell, vendors are having to price realistically.

The Rightmove House Price Index reveals;

• Buyers are more aware of their financial situation before starting their property search

• Vendors are having to price realistically and agents are having to price more accurately

• The market has remained in line with normal seasonal activity

It’s interesting to note that Rightmove suggests that even overpricing a property by 5% could have a detrimental effect on the time it takes to sell a property in certain areas, which will no doubt ensure that agents are having to value far more accurately at the outset in order to ensure that vendor expectations are set at an achievable level.

Elsewhere, the Rightmove report suggests that there is little year on year change for key metrics such as average time to sell, which is the same for last month as it was in January 2016 (79 days national average) and also stock levels per agent on average across the UK are only marginally lower year on year, with an average of 52 units per agent in January 2017 versus 53 units per agent in January 2016. Given that the first half of 2016 was exceptionally busy, this would suggest that the market has remained stable, and in line with normal seasonal activity.